Hornets Add Three Players to Training Camp Roster

Solomon Alabi, Chris Wright and Dominique Morrison are your newest New Orleans Hornets (for now). Here is what you should know about them.

The Hornets have added three players to their roster, bringing the total to 17. The roster will have to be trimmed to 15 before the regular season begins.

Solomon Alabi is a 24 year old, 7’1″ center, instantly becoming the tallest player on the team. He spent the first two years of his NBA career with the Toronto Raptors; in the 2011-12 season, he appeared in 14 games for Toronto, averaging 8.7 minutes per game. He isn’t much of a scorer and has no jumpshot; however, he takes relatively good care of the ball when it’s in his hands, giving it up on just 11.2% of possessions, and is a very good rebounder. In his limited action in 2011-12, Alabi’s offensive rebound rate (14.6%) and total rebound rate (22.6%) were both well above the league averages for centers (9.6% and 15.1% respectively). This work on the glass resulted in a near-league average PER of 14.3. In addition, his on-court vs. off-court splits indicate a knack for defense; the Raptors allowed an impressive 7.8 points per 100 possessions less while he was in the game. This data all looks nice, but the majority of his minutes last year came either in garbage time or in the final five games of the season, so whether or not he could sustain those rebounding numbers is a legitimate question.

Chris Wright is a 23 year old, 6’1″ point guard who played with Olin Edirne of the Turkish Professional Basketball League last season. He averaged 15.4 points per 36 minutes on 45.7% shooting (31.6% from beyond the arc and 68.0% from the free throw line). In addition, he averaged 5.0 assists, 1.3 steals, 3.5 rebounds, and 3.5 turnovers per 36 minutes. Prior to his year in Turkey, Wright played at Georgetown University, averaging about 4 assists and 12.5 points in just over 31 minutes of action per game.

Dominique Morrison is a 23 year old, 6’6″ undrafted rookie small forward who played his college basketball at Oral Roberts University. He averaged around 19.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in both his Junior and Senior seasons. Given how thin the Hornets are at the 3, he could have an outside chance of making the roster if he can impress the coaching staff over the next few weeks.

Barring a serious injury to someone like Darius Miller or Brian Roberts, these three players will be fighting for one roster spot, so expect all three to put forth 110% over the next month in an effort to become the New Orleans Hornets’ 15th man.

Wright could very well make the team. He is the fastest guy on the team.
Played on two very slow tempo teams in college and abroad !!! They dont
come much better than him on pick and roll !! He has yet to spread his
wings !!! He could be the steal of all 2012 free agents !!!

I hope Eric Gordon will not disappoint. This is day#2 of the training camp and It is very disappointing to see an article titled as "Eric Gordon Injury Update".
http://www.nba.com/hornets/news/eric-gordon-injury-update
On the other hand, I understand that Wright and Morrison might fight with Roberts and Miller (any maybe even Henry) for a roster spot. But, it looks very difficult for Alabi to find a spot.

While searching NBA.com I went through every team roster and I can up with the Sololmon kid. What caught my eye he had a 18 or 20 rebound game against some NBA team during his short career. He had some type of illness early own in his career. He has no offense,but any body that can get that many rebounds in a NBA game deserves a look see. He was the best of a few big bodies I would bring into camp. What about the summer league center we had starting for us in Vegas? i would have brought him in also. Really not familiar with the other two guys. The Georgetown guard was average when he was a Hoya. The Hoya guard we had in camp last year was a better player in college.

Christopher Taylor Wright played his last game for Olin Edirne in March 2012. He did not play in the remaining games of the season which ended at the end of April. He must have recovered from his health issues which were related to MS.
Here is his game-by-game stats:
http://www.tbl.org.tr/beko/oyuncu.asp?sezon=2011-2012&TakimKod=1258&Kod=4523
He finished the season at Top10 for assists per game, Top20 for steals per game, Top5 for turnovers per game(!).